Definitions for flash

• Definition
• Anagrams (44)

flash flash

Spelling: [flash]

IPA: /flæʃ/

Flash is a 5 letter English word. It's valid Scrabble word worth 11 points. It's valid Words with friends word worth 11 points.

You can make 44 anagrams from letters in flash (afhls).

Definitions for flash

noun

1. a brief, sudden burst of bright light:
2. a sudden, brief outburst or display of joy, wit, etc.
3. a very brief moment; instant:
4. Informal. flashlight (def 1).
5. superficial, meretricious, or vulgar showiness; ostentatious display.
6. Also called news flash. Journalism. a brief dispatch sent by a wire service, usually transmitting preliminary news of an important story or development. Compare bulletin (def 2).
7. Photography. bright artificial light thrown briefly upon a subject during an exposure. flash lamp. flashbulb. flashtube.
8. the sudden flame or intense heat produced by a bomb or other explosive device.
9. a sudden thought, insight, inspiration, or vision.
10. Slang. rush1 (def 26).
11. Metallurgy. a ridge of metal left on a casting by a seam between parts of the mold. a ridge formed at the edge of a forging or weld where excess metal has been squeezed out.
12. Poker. a hand containing all five suits in a game played with a five-suit pack.
13. a device, as a lock or sluice, for confining and releasing water to send a boat down a shallow stream.
14. the rush of water thus produced.
15. hot flash.
16. Obsolete. the cant or jargon of thieves, vagabonds, etc.
17. a precedence code for handling messages about initial enemy contact or operational combat messages of extreme urgency within the U.S. military.

Idioms

1. flash in the pan, a brief, intense effort that produces no really significant result. a person who makes such an effort; one who enjoys short-lived success.
2. flash on, Slang. to have a sudden thought, insight, or inspiration about. to have a sudden, vivid memory or mental picture of: to feel an instantaneous understanding and appreciation of.

adjective

1. sudden and brief:
2. showy or ostentatious.
3. caused by or used as protection against flash:
4. counterfeit or sham.
5. belonging to or connected with thieves, vagabonds, etc., or their cant or jargon.
6. of or relating to followers of boxing, racing, etc.

verb (used with object)

1. to emit or send forth (fire or light) in sudden flashes.
2. to cause to flash, as powder by ignition or a sword by waving.
3. to send forth like a flash.
4. to communicate instantaneously, as by radio or telegraph.
5. to make an ostentatious display of:
6. to display suddenly and briefly:
7. to change (water) instantly into steam by pouring or directing onto a hot surface.
8. to increase the flow of water in (a river, channel, etc.).
9. Glassmaking and Ceramics. to coat (plain glass or a glass or ceramic object) with a layer of colored, opalescent, or white glass. to apply (such a layer). to color or make (glass) opaque by reheating.
10. Building Trades. to protect from leakage with flashing.
11. Cards. to expose (a card) in the process of dealing.
12. Archaic. to dash or splash (water).

verb (used without object)

1. to break forth into sudden flame or light, especially transiently or intermittently:
2. to gleam.
3. to burst suddenly into view or perception:
4. to move like a flash.
5. to speak or behave with sudden anger, outrage, or the like (often followed by out):
6. to break into sudden action.
7. Slang. to open one's clothes and expose the genitals suddenly, and usually briefly, in public.
8. Slang. to experience the intense effects of a narcotic or stimulant drug.
9. to dash or splash, as the sea or waves.
10. Archaic. to make a flash or sudden display.

Origin of flash

1350-1400; Middle English flasshen to sprinkle, splash, earlier flask(i)en; probably phonesthemic in orig.; compare similar expressive words with fl- and -sh

Examples for flash

Cops launched a flash grenade through the window and officer Joseph Weekley fired, fatally striking Stanley-Jones.

The strange treachery at Maizar in June was a flash in the pan.

In a flash he deflects the shot, with the speed of instinct, right past the goalkeeper.

She dropped into her chair, with a flash of resentment at the proximity of the other table.

This flash of gold is the only brightness in the place, otherwise dull and monotonous.

She looked at him an instant, and then in a flash realised her true position.

The idea that January 1st initiates a period of new beginning is not a flash of Hallmark brilliance.

flash says it after watching Arrow swing off a rooftop; Arrow says it seconds later as he watches flash run away.

I see a couple holding each other and longingly looking at flash sheets on the wall.

If I could only flash last night—every glorious minute of it—upon paper!